Stroudsburg wins five of six flights to capture MVC tennis tourney

Saturday

Apr 24, 2010 at 12:01 AM

POCONO SUMMIT — It wasn't easy and Stroudsburg knew that would be the case.

JOE MIEGOC

POCONO SUMMIT — It wasn't easy and Stroudsburg knew that would be the case.

The Mounties took gold in five of the six flights and finished third at fourth doubles on their way to winning the Mountain Valley Conference boys tennis tournament at Pocono Mountain West High School on Friday.

Stroudsburg finished with 28 points, East Stroudsburg North was second with 22 and Pleasant Valley third with 13. Pocono Mountain East finished fourth with eight points and Pocono Mountain West took fifth with four points. Lehighton did not score any points.

The Mounties swept the singles flight with Karthik Shankar winning at first singles, Cayetano Ceballos prevailing at second singles and Jeff Norris taking gold at third singles. At second doubles, Alex Davidge and Stephen Poorman teamed up for victory and Jimmy Catina and Juan Flores won at third doubles for the Mounties. North's Joe Leone and Sean Leone won gold at fourth doubles.

The Mounties' victories didn't come without some work.

Shankar played neck and neck with East Stroudsburg North's Gian Garcia in the final with each player holding serve until Shankar broke to win the match 8-6.

"I held at 4-4 in a deuce game and I hadn't broken his serve until the very last game of the match," Shankar said. "They were the two big games where I held my nerves and buckled down and got a lot of balls in play."

Ceballos, a transfer student from Spain, trailed East Stroudsburg North's Tim DeSilva 3-1 at second singles before winning the last seven games, ending many points with, "Vamos!"

Flores and Catina survived in the semifinals by beating Zach Von Zup and Kody Fleet of Pocono Mountain East in a tiebreaker before winning the final 8-3.

"You just have to pick it up when it comes to a tiebreaker like that," Flores said. "You just have to play your best and leave it all on the court because there are no regrets at the end of the day."

Just like they've done the past two seasons, Davidge and Poorman came out winners.

The two were unbeaten last year, formed a close bond playing in the defensive backfield for Stroudsburg's district championship soccer team last fall and have yet to lose this season. They won their semifinal match 8-1 and won 8-5 in the final.

"(The chemistry) developed with the soccer team and we carried it over into the tennis season," Poorman said. "Luckily we were matched up again at No. 2 doubles and we just know how to work together like we did in soccer."

Stroudsburg victory may not have been a surprise, but the Mounties came in prepared for a tough day.

Stroudsburg had won all nine of its MVC matches along with its three non-conference matches, but weren't about to take anyone lightly Friday.

"It's a fine line between balancing confidence and respect for your opponent and the guys do a good job of it," Stroudsburg coach Adele Gardner said.